Stupid-shit-of-deployment-awards: Notes from a US soldier in Iraq

[FRED]

Read it while you can...

[Rajiv]

Re: Stupid-shit-of-deployment-awards: Notes from a US soldier in Iraq

Troops Cheer Call For Iraq Withdrawl
Governor's Call For U.S. Withdrawal From Iraq Greeted With Standing Ovation At National Guard Conference

A call by Puerto Rico's governor for a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq earned a standing ovation from a conference of more than 4,000 National Guardsmen.

Gov. Anibal Acevedo Vila said Saturday that the U.S. administration has "no new strategy and no signs of success" and that prolonging the war would needlessly put guardsmen in harm's way.

"The war in Iraq has fractured the political will of the United States and the world," he said at the opening of the 129th National Guard Association general conference. "Clearly, a new war strategy is required and urgently."

Acevedo said sending more troops to Iraq would be a costly blunder.
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Col. David Carrion Baralt, the Guard's top official in the U.S. Caribbean territory, said Acevedo received a standing ovation.

"Maybe the (officers) were not expecting those kinds of comments, but having a dialogue is the point of conferences like these," Carrion said by phone.

The nonpartisan National Guard Association represents nearly 45,000 current and former Air and Army National Guard officers and petitions Congress for resources.

[Rajiv]

Re: Stupid-shit-of-deployment-awards: Notes from a US soldier in Iraq

Another addition by Alex

I’m not a radical or an extremist, as you might think. My biggest fans are in my platoon. The most common thing I hear from them is, this is what I’ve been thinking the whole time. So my thoughts and ruminations aren’t entirely unique. I just simply have the attention of people to tell it to in the country we left behind fifteen months ago.

President Eisenhower warned of the growing military industrial complex in his farewell address. Since Dick Cheney can now afford solid gold oil derricks, it’s safe to say we failed Ike miserably. After losing two friends and over a dozen comrades, I have this to say:

Do not wage war unless it is absolutely, positively the last ditch effort for survival.

I was a struggling senior in high school when the invasion took place, and I supported it. I was mesmerized by the way we raced across the desert and took Baghdad in less than a month. War was a sleek, glossy commercial on TV, and we always won at the end. It’s easy to be for a war when you have absolutely no connection with it. Patriotism lead me to believe what we were doing was right and noble. What a difference a deployment can make.

The public can do something about this. It doesn’t have to be a hopeless cause forever. Write your Congressmen, go to a rally, read as much as you can about Iraq to see it for what it is: a place men go to lose their minds and their lives. And most importantly, love your children. Teach them that war is not honorable, it’s no plaything cast with an indifferent hand. It’s the most terrible thing man ever brought to the world. My generation didn’t learn from Vietnam, but the next one can learn from us. The memories and spirit of Chevy and Jesse compel you, America. Do not forget your fallen sons.

[Tet]

Re: Stupid-shit-of-deployment-awards: Notes from a US soldier in Iraq

Read it while you can...

I think we'll always have US Marine Major General Smedley Butler's book "War is a Racket" to refer to if this blog goes down the memory hole. From Cuba, Central America, the Hawaiian Islands and any place the US Marine Corp has landed, our Corporate Pirates are either being bailed out because the local population got sick of the looting, raping and murdering or the country is invaded so the Corporate Pirates can loot, rape and murder the local population at will. To view Iraq as some sort of noble invasion is pretty laughable. The winners have always been the Pirates so I would bet accordingly. Should be no surprise to anyone paying attention that HAL, XOM, LMT, ABX and a host of other's were the looters and plunderers of choice for the current administration.

Link to Butler's book, War is a Racket
http://lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm



Sometimes the soldiers catch on and sometimes they don't.

[Spartacus]

Re: Stupid-shit-of-deployment-awards: Notes from a US soldier in Iraq

Wow ... thanks so much for that link. I've never heard of him before.

If you listen to Financial Sense, rember the angry calls the week after the Perkins interview?

I wonder what those callers would have said if the interview had been with this guy.

from Wikipedia

>>>>>
I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints.

[FRED]

Re: Stupid-shit-of-deployment-awards: Notes from a US soldier in Iraq

Wow ... thanks so much for that link. I've never heard of him before.

If you listen to Financial Sense, rember the angry calls the week after the Perkins interview?

I wonder what those callers would have said if the interview had been with this guy.

from Wikipedia

>>>>>
I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints.

A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but can’t afford an air force.
~ William Blum

[Tet]

Re: Stupid-shit-of-deployment-awards: Notes from a US soldier in Iraq

A terrorist is someone who has a bomb but can’t afford an air force.
~ William Blum

LOL, I think Butler was the most decorated Marine of his time period and it wouldn't shock me if he still is. War is certainly a racket, looks like health care is about to become a racket as well if it already isn't.

[Rajiv]

Re: Stupid-shit-of-deployment-awards: Notes from a US soldier in Iraq

Also The War in Iraq: A Cost-Benefit Analysis

The War in Iraq has cost about $453,000,000,000 (four hundred and fifty-three billion dollars) to date.

That's pretty hard to grasp. Especially on my income and probably on yours. Let's bring that home and make it a little more understandable.

I live in Ulster County, New York. Our share of that is $372,000,000 (three hundred and seventy-two million dollars).

If you live in Los Angeles, your bill is $4,823,000,000 (four billion, eight hundred twenty-three million). Savannah, Georgia, $144,000,000. Little Rock, Arkansas, $339,000,000. That's how much you're putting in so far. It keeps ticking away at two billion dollars a week. If you live somewhere else and want to know how much it's costing your city or county, go to costofwar.com.
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What did we get for our money?

The original deal - as presented to us - was to disarm Saddam Hussein for $50 billion. If we didn't do it right away, the smoking gun would be a mushroom cloud.

Bizarre, but true, that was actually accomplished. And for far less. It wasn't difficult, since Saddam was already disarmed. But by massing our troops and demanding UN resolutions, Saddam was forced to let the inspectors in so that we got to see it for ourselves.

But the administration was set on war! We're not actually sure why. Perhaps they aren't either. So they told us that the inspectors were associated with the UN. They were Swiss or French or some other foreigners, and therefore, unlike Americans, they were easily conned. Their failure to find WMDs didn't mean there weren't any. It really meant that Saddam was super tricky as well as super evil.

So the goal slipped from disarming Saddam to removing Saddam.

Removing Saddam was going to be a magic moment. It was going to be like a Disney animated feature. When the ogre was slain, the entire kingdom would break out with flowers and the flowers would dance and sing. And welcome the Americans as liberators!

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George Bush's version of the Marshall Plan, the reconstruction, is even worse. Paul Bremer III burned through - an estimated - forty billion dollars. Billions were handed out in cash. People were playing football with shrink wrapped bricks of $100 bills.

Nobody knows where the money went.

Nor has there been much reconstruction. There is less electrical service than before the war. There are fewer functioning schools, hospitals and medical facilities. There is no one to staff them if they had been built, since so many of the people with skills have been killed or driven out of the country. Water and waste treatment is so inadequate that a cholera epidemic is appearing.

[FRED]

Re: Stupid-shit-of-deployment-awards: Notes from a US soldier in Iraq

LOL, I think Butler was the most decorated Marine of his time period and it wouldn't shock me if he still is. War is certainly a racket, looks like health care is about to become a racket as well if it already isn't.

Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.
~ Lucy Parsons

If pigs could vote, the man with the slop bucket would be elected swineherd every time, no matter how much slaughtering he did on the side.
~ Orson Scott Card

[Andreuccio]

Re: Stupid-shit-of-deployment-awards: Notes from a US soldier in Iraq

War is certainly a racket, looks like health care is about to become a racket as well if it already isn't.

I think dental care already is. In the last couple of years several people I know, who up until then had taken pretty good care of their teeth, were told, each by a different dentist, that they needed "deep cleaning", at an extra expense of several hundred dollars.

Jim Nickerson, as an oral surgeon, what's your take on "deep cleaning"? Scam or newly developed panacea?

[Jim Nickerson]

Re: Stupid-shit-of-deployment-awards: Notes from a US soldier in Iraq

I think dental care already is. In the last couple of years several people I know, who up until then had taken pretty good care of their teeth, were told, each by a different dentist, that they needed "deep cleaning", at an extra expense of several hundred dollars.

Jim Nickerson, as an oral surgeon, what's your take on "deep cleaning"? Scam or newly developed panacea?

Oh, Andreuccio, I don't want to get started on this shit, and you wouldn't want me to do so either.

Dentists, physicians, lawyers, and accountants (I'm tired, sorry if I left any groups out) all provide "services" which entail some level of expertise gained through education and practice and generally lie beyond the comprehension, I think, of average people--and I am not putting down average people except to the degree that we all are ignorant about some things.

The problem with all these professions is lay persons cannot tell who is a good and who isn't a good provider. It would be simple if they all were equal in knowledge, diligence, and honesty, but I do not believe that applies. However, most charge as though for certain they are all knowledgeable, diligent and honest. Further they charge on what the service is worth to them (based on what I perceive as an irrational value system). Where else do you buy anything that before you buy it you don't know what it costs, where it comes with no assurance that it will be worth what you pay, and often when you have to buy it, you will be told how you have to pay for it? Total Bummer!

If a "generalist" in any profession told me I needed something "special" that he could provide and the question was one of validation of actual need and there was a serious consideration of costs, I would seek out a specialist, (in your friends' instances that would be a periodontist), but then you are back to the same issue of what practicioner is more interested in what you truly need vs. what he truly wants to get from his exposure to patients. To me it is a terrible world in which we live with dental and healthcare. If you have all the money you could ever want, and someone to do the "legwork" to find good doctors, they exist--I am pretty sure I know three of four, or did know them--but getting onself into their hands and not going broke getting there would be a challenge of the highest order for the average person. I just went through this bullshit being a resident of Fort Worth and not knowing anyone here. I even went to one oral surgeon, whom I knew, and he ******* ripped me (and Medicare) off on a consult.

[Gordo]

Re: Stupid-shit-of-deployment-awards: Notes from a US soldier in Iraq

LOL, I think (Smedley) Butler was the most decorated Marine of his time period and it wouldn't shock me if he still is.

The most highly decorated Marine in the history of the Marine Corps was Lewis "Chesty" Puller, winner of 5 Navy crosses (the Navy Cross is right below the Medal of Honor.) Chesty served in Haiti and Nicaragua in the 20's and WWll and Korea.

Chesty's son, Lewis Puller, Jr. had his legs and hand blown off in Vietnam and wrote "Fortunate Son" about his life and committed suicide a few years ago.

I think Chesty Puller, who died in 1973, may have finally reached the conclusion that war is a racket, after his son's horrible wounds.

[Tet]

Re: Stupid-shit-of-deployment-awards: Notes from a US soldier in Iraq

Chesty's son, Lewis Puller, Jr. had his legs and hand blown off in Vietnam and wrote "Fortunate Son" about his life and committed suicide a few years ago.

I think Chesty Puller, who died in 1973, may have finally reached the conclusion that war is a racket, after his son's horrible wounds.

Rudyard Kipling's writing for the empire pre 1915 was much different than after 1915 when his son is killed at the battle of Loos.

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier ~of~ the Queen!

My family served in WWI, WWII and Vietnam and all of them realized war is nothing but a racket.

[EJ]

Re: Stupid-shit-of-deployment-awards: Notes from a US soldier in Iraq

Rudyard Kipling's writing for the empire pre 1915 was much different than after 1915 when his son is killed at the battle of Loos.

When you're wounded and left on Afghanistan's plains,
And the women come out to cut up what remains,
Jest roll to your rifle and blow out your brains
An' go to your Gawd like a soldier.
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
Go, go, go like a soldier,
So-oldier ~of~ the Queen!

My family served in WWI, WWII and Vietnam and all of them realized war is nothing but a racket.

Can anything be stupider than that a man has the right to kill me because he lives on the other side of a river and his ruler has a quarrel with mine, though I have not quarreled with him?
~ Blaise Pascal

[Tet]

Re: Stupid-shit-of-deployment-awards: Notes from a US soldier in Iraq

The most highly decorated Marine in the history of the Marine Corps was Lewis "Chesty" Puller, winner of 5 Navy crosses (the Navy Cross is right below the Medal of Honor.) Chesty served in Haiti and Nicaragua in the 20's and WWll and Korea.

Chesty's son, Lewis Puller, Jr. had his legs and hand blown off in Vietnam and wrote "Fortunate Son" about his life and committed suicide a few years ago.

I think Chesty Puller, who died in 1973, may have finally reached the conclusion that war is a racket, after his son's horrible wounds.

Interesting that Butler had two Medal of Honors, one Brevet Medal, French Black Star and several Purple Hearts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler

I'll check out Chesty Puler, thanks for pointing him out.